East Coast Music Awards Recap

From May 2nd-6th, we hung out in Halifax, Nova Scotia for the East Coast Music Awards. The ECMA Festival and Conference is now a five-day, non-stop musical celebration showcasing and recognizing the best of East Coast artists and music. The internationally recognized event gathers Canadian musicians from the East Coast, music industry professionals, and music fans to learn from the industry's most respected players and watch some of the country's brightest rising stars. This year, we presented the award for Electronic Recording of the Year, and had the chance to interview the five incredible nominees and watch them perform during…

ECMA Artist Feature: Veev

Veev is one of the most prominent house music producers in Eastern Canada. Over the last 12 years, he has used a fusion of Jackin, Disco, Soulful and Tech house to carve out a successful place in music as both DJ and producer. This year, he was nominated for Electronic Recording of the Year at…

Creating Beats for Dance Styles with the DJ-808

In this article, we’ll show you how to create some typical breaks on the Roland DJ-808 DJ Controller. Whether you play House, Drum and Bass, Trap or Electro, you can use the TR-S on the DJ-808 to incorporate live drum elements into your mix and make your sets stand out from the crowd. The videos…

GUIDE TO USING THE ROLAND DJ-808 WITH SERATO DJ

The Roland DJ-808 is an exceptionally powerful DJ performance instrument. Featuring an onboard TR sequencer, low latency platters and AIRA Link, the DJ-808 is set to truly take live DJ performances to the next level. However, the DJ-808 is only half of the equation. Without understanding Serato DJ software, you won’t be getting the most…

Top 15 Roland Releases of ’15

Roland MX-1 Bonus Features

At its core, the Roland MX-1 Mix Performer is a great mixer with built-in effects and controls that are excellent for both live performance and studio use. It is an 18 channel audio device, and the effects can be sequenced using TR-style buttons. These features alone make it a good value for the price; however,…

Overview of the AIRA MX-1 Mix Performer

A new addition to the AIRA line was unveiled at NAMM — the new Roland AIRA MX-1 Mix Performer! The MX-1 is much more than just a mixer. It’s a performance-oriented musical instrument designed to be the nerve center of your electronic rig. Check out the infographic below to see what really sets the MX-1 apart from other mixers out there!

The Roland Mobile UA Explained

Anyone who’s serious about audio quality will certainly want to experience Roland’s Mobile UA Audio Interface. The Mobile UA is currently the smallest audio interface in the world to utilize the Direct Stream Digital (DSD) audio format. Its sole purpose is to produce the most accurate audio possible out of your computer no matter where…

Which one do I buy? FA-06 vs VR-09

Roland has two keyboard instruments that are just over the $1000 mark, the FA-06 Workstation and VR-09 Live Performance Synthesizer. I’ve had a number of keyboardists say that they were torn between the two and ask which instrument they should buy. In this post, I figured I would compare the two and give you some…

What is Roland’s SBX-1 SYNC BOX?

Simply put, the Roland SBX-1 SYNC BOX is a master time keeper and translator for electronic musical instruments. Like a coxswain to rowers in a boat, the SBX-1 can keep all connected instruments in extremely accurate time with each other. Or like a personal translator between the Prime Ministers of Canada and Japan, it can…

Recording Tips: Post Production

The pizza is all eaten, the tracks are all recorded, and everyone is satisfied that their parts are both in tune and in time. If not, it is usually quicker to record them again than trying to use editing to patch them up in post production. Having said that, slight imperfections in vocal pitching can be polished out using an automatic pitch correction…